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OVER THE NEXT week some 12,000 people across the country aged 85 and over will receive their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, as the immunisation programme moves into its third phase.
The health service has said it aims to move into the next cohort – those aged 80-84 – in around three weeks’ time.
Recent advice from the country’s immunisation advisory committee (NIAC) forced the HSE to quickly shift gear to facilitate the use of two mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, rather than the less complicated AstraZeneca vaccine.
For some, this means the venue for their vaccination has also changed though the majority of patients will be able to receive their jab in their own GP’s surgery.
From today, people aged over 85 will receive the vaccine. Some 12,000 doses will be delivered to GP surgeries and to vaccination centres across the country.
We're heading into a more positive phase in dealing with #COVID19. We all wish we had more supplies to vaccinate quicker. But soon we'll have our most vulnerable living in care homes and in the community protected. And supplies improve from this week too. #Hope @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) February 15, 2021
Speaking at a briefing last week Dr Nuala O’Connor, Covid clinical lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), said GPs will be contacting patients to let them know when their appointments are and where they should go.
“Almost everybody over 70 in Ireland is entitled to a GP GMS (General Medical Services) card, either a full one or a Doctor’s Visit Card. So that’s how we know the exact number,” she said.
“The PCRS (Primary Care Reimbursement Service) knows exactly how many over 85 patients are registered with every single GP in the country. Then we were asked to do an audit and validation exercise.
You’d have patients that are officially registered but for instance I have a lady and her mum who lives in Co Meath has been cocooning with them in Cork and she was saying ‘oh we’ll have to bring Mum up to county Meath for two doses’ and I said ‘no, we will get that’.
“We’ve a few people like that, we added them to our list and we have a few people who just chose not to get a medical card. We’ve another lady who’s from Europe who has come to stay with her family here. She’s a European citizen. There’s a few people like that.”
Dr O’Connor said the HSE sent an email to her office asking her to confirm the number on the PCRS with her own database and she replied with figures to include any additional patients.
Each GP practice will have a ‘back-up’ list for the day, with patients to call in if there are additional doses. This will ensure that there is no waste if they manage to get more than six doses out of each vial or if they have cancellations, O’Connor said.
“What we’ve done is we’ve ordered 16 vials, which will each have six doses – we can absolutely take six doses,” she explained.
“But the good news is that with the dead space syringes we will hopefully get an extra 16 doses – one dose per vial – so we will have our contingency list of the next group and we’ll have them ready.”
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has advised that people aged 70 and over should only receive mRNA vaccines – such as the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna ones – where possible.
This followed guidance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which stated that there was not enough data to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in those aged over 55.
“However, protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines; as there is reliable information on safety in this population, EMA’s scientific experts considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults,” the EMA said.
Last week the World Health Organization recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in all adults. However, Ireland’s advisory committee has not issued any new advice.
This means that this week all 12,000 doses administered to people aged over 85 will be the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The first delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived last week and the first doses were administered from Monday to healthcare workers.
Ireland will continue to receive doses of this vaccine and over the course of this week 22,000 doses of it will be administered to frontline healthcare workers.
The majority of people will get their vaccine at their own GP’s surgery. This week 84 practices – many with several GPs working in them – will be involved in the initial roll-out.
Smaller practices or those with fewer than 200 patients in this age group will ‘buddy up’ with other local GPs, with some grouping together at a larger practice.
The Moderna vaccine is packed in 100 doses and the Pfizer one can only be packed down to 36 doses, so these measures are to ensure no doses are wasted in practices that have fewer over 85s.
A small number of mass vaccination centres in venues such as The Helix in DCU and Cork Institute of Technology will also be used. The Helix will be used by 121 GPs this week to vaccinate 1,600 of their patients.
Next week marks a nice milestone as the vaccination of the aged 85+ living in the community starts. Most vaccinations will happen in GP practices. In @DCU 121 GPs will also come together and vaccinate 1600 of their patients in one of our vaccination centres. @HSELive @ICGPnews pic.twitter.com/ZibB3aVXUk
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) February 12, 2021
The HSE has said arrangements will be made, where possible, to transport people to their appointments if required.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Dr Denis McCauley, Chairman of the GP Committee of the IMO, said no specific arrangements have yet been made for people who are housebound.
“There is significant planning going on in the background to see if there is a way to get this very delicate vaccine to people, or whether we can get an alternative one – do we want to wait until we have access to an mRNA vaccine that is more mobile?
“The planning on this is very active, we know this is a vulnerable group.”
There are more than 480,000 people aged over 70 in Ireland, with more than 72,000 aged over 85.
HSE CEO Paul Reid has said he expects everyone in this over 70s cohort to have received their first dose by mid-April and their second dose by the middle of May.
The HSE has said during this third phase it will also go back to older people in residential care who did not receive a vaccine during the initial phases of the programme due to outbreaks or their own diagnosis with Covid-19.
Although the plans had to change significantly in a short space of time for this next phase, Dr Denis McCauley said GPs are feeling confident about their own preparedness.
“Once it gets going we’ll be fine. People have been getting their emails and putting their orders in,” he said.
“This is a new system, hopefully there won’t be any glitches and once we’ve completed one cycle of delivery everybody will be much more comfortable.”
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Please have some respect for this Garda and he’s family may I suggest that the comments on this story be closed ASAP.
@Inanimate Carbon Rod: “why? Let me mention an unrelated case”
@Inanimate Carbon Rod: There you go you’ve answered your own question by saying the word some Garda.
So if there is under handed stuff going on in that division may I ask how do you know this Garda is involved in it?
He may well not have anything to do with what’s happening.
You can’t just assume he’s got something to do with it.
I think the old saying is don’t tar them all with the one brush which is exactly what you’re doing here.
@Inanimate Carbon Rod: joking right?
@Joe oshaughnessy: Why close comments?
@Seamus Mc Meel: Because I’m fairly sure the family involved here would appreciate some privacy as would you if your family were in the same situation.
There’s no deterrent in this country to respect the Law. There should be stiffer sentences
@Noel Barnes: There might be a deterrent if the judiciary didn’t give lenient sentences to rapists and sex offenders and An Garda Síochána wasn’t lying through their teeth every other week about whistleblowers, breath tests, and abusing the PULSE system for a few quid off the tabloids. The Irish police force is one of the most corrupt forces in the Western World.
@Noel Barnes: look what happened to garda mc cabe that was the lowest.
@Michael Knight: any figures for that?
@John M: Figures for what?
@John M: Oh the breath tests? Sorry, I think they’re at 4 billion and counting.
@Michael Knight: jesus pal travel around the western world and experience other police forces then come back and see do you still believe in your comment. See are the as corrupt as you perceive. Might take a few years to get back from what ever country you cross paths with their police tho
@Noel Barnes: have you been following the disclosures tribunal? he law dont respect the law!
@Austin hickey:Ahem, Which Garda McCabe?
@Michael Knight: really? Because of statistics?
You have huge faith in other forces
@Austin hickey: yeah, imagine a police force receiving a report from a medical professional that one of their officers abused a child and actually investigating it.
They should have done nothing and protected him like honest cops eh?
The amount of s(umbags in this country is unreal. And I’m not using s(umbags in a classist term as some people were suggesting last week
@COYBIG: Last week & the week before that etc etc etc…there are some people on here that are just totally despicable! Aka trolling idiots.
@Larry Flynt: lovely you just proved my point!
@Colette Kearns: I don’t think anyone should listen to Larry. So let’s all ignore him.
Intimidating the Gardaí is a stupid move by stupid people. All it will do is make them more resolute. I hope these cowardly acts earn the sickos a few extra years behind bars.
If anyone here is ok with gangs and criminality then they’re the ones with the problem.
Using the incidents involving these two Gardai to justify a call for Gardai to be armed with tasers ? What good would tasers have done in both those incidents ? Says a lot about crime detection rates when even the Gardai can’t be ar$ed reporting crimes against themselves.
@Tommy Roche: The fact that they are trained to investigate incidents like these themselves they would know if it was worth wasting scarce Garda resources investigating where there was no evidence to suggest who carried out these attacks.
@Mick Jordan: But how do they know there’s no evidence if the crime hasn’t been investigated ? Isn’t that the whole point of investigation, to find evidence ? If the incidents are as insidious as this article suggests, then surely they warrant being properly reported and investigated.
@Tommy Roche: Because they being trained investigators themselves could see that there was nothing. If I were to break your window with a stick or hammer how would know it was me, unless I left the item behind or someone saw me you would have no evidence. Likewise with slashing your tyres or keying your car.
@Tommy Roche: is that a joke or are you just stupid?
Of course serving gardai would know if it’s worth reporting or not. This may shock you but normal gardai couldn’t give a flying monkeys about crime stats, they just want to catch criminals!
@Karl: Relax, Kermit.
@Mick Jordan: See no evil hear no evil.is that the answer Throw hands in the air Poor attitude to care in the community.
This is just blatant propaganda from the gardai. It’s transparent nonsense. Somebody (a supposed source in aGS) says something to the Journal about an unnamed case & alleged intimidation, on condition of anonymity, during a period of increased scrutiny of corruption in the force. Don’t take everyone for fools. This is f_-kin tragic!
@Paul Devlin: and before people get on my case, there’s no names, no area ( bar the vague ‘north east’), no crimes, nothing to actually pin it down. It’s just vacuous propaganda. If it’s true then show us the article where the windows were out in. Put some flesh on the bone. The supposed crime gang know where they live already so where is the ham? What a pile of cr-p!
@Paul Devlin: quick!!! Share all the sensitive information with this dumbass so he believes you
@Paul Devlin: So we can take it from your comment that you don’t like the Gardai.
@Rosie Murray: Paul got a speeding ticket before and the chip has remained on his shoulder since
@Pat Bateman: ya. But unlike Martin callinan and Paul Williams, he couldn’t get he’s dodgy Garda mates to wipe he’s penalty points!
All windows smashed and he didn’t report it?? Car keyed and he didn’t report it?? It’s almost like they’ve no faith in the Gardai, or could it just be a bullish!t story…
These shites that are carrying out these attacks on gardai probably have convictions as long as their arms but for some unknown reasons, the quacks in the judiciary keep giving them suspended sentences
North East, drugs or green diesel then???
Why didn’t they report the incidents? Was it to keep stats down
Gardai don’t do stats, the system they input data into does and they don’t input it trained civilian data inputters do read your inspectorate reports and also classification is as hard. Lets say your car gets broken into, your had tools taken,so theft, then you see they tried the ignition to start your car, unauthorised taking, there’s criminal damage also, maybe more all from one incident. You want to classify it as one incident its impossible at times. But Gardai turn up and investigate the crime that is their job not producing stats for the CSO that should be a bi product.
Anyway your comment was hilarious.
@Liam Burke: that comment speaks more about your lack of knowledge then the gardai.
Pulse and stats are controlled by civilians. Gardai just investigate
Speaks volumes if the guards aren’t even reporting crimes committed in themselves.
@Stephen Devlin: because they don’t care about crime stats which is all it would benefit. There’s no evidence and it would only waste more Garda time that they don’t have
@Karl: I think recording the problem is key to understanding improvements.
@Stephen Devlin: With nonsense like that you are surely management
they sure it wasn’t? own Freemasons in PSNI
Bet it’s Dundalk
Ireland doesn’t deserve the police it has, deserves much worse.
Unarmed, threatened off duty, badly equipped, badly led by senior officers that obtained their positions by nepotism a bunch of online cowards sniping at them for things outside their control and usually wrong.
I await the false and overly simplistic comment about being the best paid in Europe.
have your say